{"id":1763,"date":"2015-06-25T15:55:14","date_gmt":"2015-06-25T15:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/state-of-logistics-despite-serious-capacity-crunch-rates-only-steady\/"},"modified":"2025-01-10T16:51:45","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T16:51:45","slug":"state-of-logistics-despite-serious-capacity-crunch-rates-only-steady","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/state-of-logistics-despite-serious-capacity-crunch-rates-only-steady\/","title":{"rendered":"State of Logistics: Despite Serious Capacity Crunch, Rates Only \u2018Steady\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last year was the \u201cbest year for the supply chain industry since the Great Recession\u201d but serious concern over the truck driver shortage persist, said transportation consultant Rosalyn Wilson at the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals’<\/a> (CSCMP) 26th Annual \u201cState of Logistics Report\u201d <\/a>which is presented by Penske Logistics.<\/p>\n

The transportation sector grew by 3.6% last year \u2013 thanks mainly to stronger shipment volumes, not higher rates, said Wilson, who reportedly tracked and measured all costs associated with moving freight through the supply chain since 1988.<\/p>\n

As reported by Heavy Duty Trucking<\/a>, Wilson explained \u00a0how the general freight pattern in 2014 was unmistakable:<\/p>\n

\u201cFreight shipment volume [of late] has been following a predictable trend \u2013 starting the year at or below the end of the previous year, rising throughout the spring, flattening or even dropping during the summer months, peaking in August-September, then falling close to the levels at which the year started 2014 was no exception for the start of the trend, as the January level was the lowest since 2010. February followed the trend and began the climb upward\u2026 Things got even better in the second quarter with freight payments in April hitting the highest point in 15 years. Shipment volume also rose in April reaching the highest level since June 2011. Freight continued to gain momentum although the performance of the economy overall during this period was weak.\u201d<\/p>\n

During this time, the trucking industry edged closer to 100% utilization. And while the number of truck shipments declined, truck tonnage increased.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis supports the anecdotal evidence collected that suggests loads are heavier and more trucks are moving at or near full capacity,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She cautioned supply-chain firms to \u201cbe aware that a trucking shortage allows carriers to be selective in who they do business with. They are interested in maximizing driver pay and satisfaction, which means more time actually driving to deliver or pick up goods since drivers are generally paid by the mile.<\/p>\n

\u201cShippers who hold drivers for long periods of time waiting to load or unload, or who do not treat their drivers well, will fall to the bottom,\u201d she continued. \u201cMaximum equipment utilization, quicker turns, and fewer empties go right to the bottom line. Shippers willing to work with carriers to accomplish this will fare better than those who neglect these issues.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n

According to Wilson, the state of logistics in 2015 will be shaped by the expected \u201csustained growth in freight volume and the capacity limitations combined and cost increases.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the problems that the freight logistics industry will face in the next three years will boil down to capacity issues. Freight volume is expected to increase at a moderate rate, but capacity is not going to keep pace. Rates should rise faster in the second half of 2015 to cover the higher costs faced by carriers and needed investment.\u201d<\/p>\n

While carriers are working to overcome some capacity constraints, they are proceeding with caution to make sure that they do not end up in the overcapacity situation they found themselves in prior to the Great Recession.<\/p>\n

\u00ab\u00a0Truck drivers,\u201d she added, \u201cwill be the limiting factor for the growth in trucking capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s curious then why the capacity crunch across all segments hasn\u2019t necessarily translated into significant upward movement in trucking freight rates.<\/p>\n

\u201cI absolutely cannot understand why trucking companies are not in the driver\u2019s seat regarding freight rates, and I\u2019ve been saying this for the last two or three years,\u201d Fleet Owner<\/a> reported Wilson as saying.<\/p>\n

Joe Carlier, senior VP of sales with Penske Logistics, noted that there doesn\u2019t seem to be a \u201cclear reason\u201d why this contradiction between almost 100% capacity utilization and what he called \u201csteady rates\u201d exists in trucking.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the big question because it isn\u2019t making sense,\u201d he told Fleet Owner. \u201cThat\u2019s what has really popped out of this year\u2019s report as unique; what is really behind this \u2018flat rate\u2019 trend.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last year was the \u201cbest year for the supply chain industry since the Great Recession\u201d but serious concern over the truck driver shortage persist, said transportation consultant Rosalyn Wilson at…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,28],"tags":[30,89,93,21,33,166,167,326,392,98,24,393],"class_list":["post-1763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-conditions","category-labour-hr-driver-shortage","tag-capacity","tag-costs","tag-driver-pay","tag-economy","tag-freight-market","tag-freight-rates","tag-freight-volumes","tag-logistics","tag-shipments","tag-shippers","tag-supply-chain","tag-tonnage"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cantruck.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}